


Omega as Fish Oil

by EternalEclipse



Category: Bleach
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Anal Sex, Heat-Related Consent Issues, M/M, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Multi, Non-Traditional Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Omega!Kisuke, Omega!Starrk, Omega/Omega, Sex Toys, i can keep going with hcs about who's what in this fic but it's largely not relevant, mild politics, no one is getting pregnant here, omega!Ichigo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-09
Updated: 2020-01-09
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:55:44
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22182934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EternalEclipse/pseuds/EternalEclipse
Summary: Yeah, Ichigo's an omega. He's fine with it, especially since some of the instincts that come along with it are useful for protecting his own. What he's not fine with are a bunch of shinigami noble knotheads deciding that he's up for the taking because of it. Luckily, he's got a Kisuke to help him set them straight.
Relationships: Kurosaki Ichigo/Urahara Kisuke, Urahara Kisuke/Kurosaki Ichigo/Coyote Starrk
Comments: 9
Kudos: 413
Collections: Hollow or Instincts Driven Ichigo, UraIchi Prompt Challenge #4





	Omega as Fish Oil

**Author's Note:**

> My slightly belated final addition to pc4! This one is for prompt #59, blood in the water. It would have been up sooner, but I had some brickspace issues and no internet for a bit in there, so here we are. I slightly blame Chaos because without them I probably wouldn't have written any sex--it's not usually my thing, but then none of these things are usually my things and here we are. If I've mistagged anything, feel free to let me know as I am fully aware that I suck at tags. I hope it's enjoyable! Thanks for reading!

Ichigo stomped into the Shoten and pushed a stack of paper at Kisuke. “How the fuck do you get them to stop?”

Kisuke hummed as he picked up the top of the stack and scanned it. He set it back down in front of Ichigo within a few seconds. “Get exiled. That’s what did it for me.” He turned a page, thinking. “Or bonded, I suppose. As long as whoever it’s to can defend themself.”

“And if I tell them to go fuck themselves?”

“Some of them would take it as encouragement. You’re welcome to try, however.”

Ichigo scowled. “I’m using your recycling bin, mine’s full.”

“You know where it is,” Kisuke waved him off before going back to his notebook.

Ichigo had never made a secret of his omega status. He’d decided early on that the instincts that helped him protect people were helpful and he wasn’t going to hamstring himself by not using them to their fullest extent.

He’s also never much cared about what society made of him doing his own thing. If someone gave him shit for putting himself out there, either at school or in a fight, he punched them right in the face. If they brought their buddies next time, to ‘teach him better’, well, that was the reason he’d learned to take on groups on his own. His first best friend had been an alpha, and he’d matched her blow for blow as best he could.

He’d stepped on Soul Society’s feet just as well as the Human World’s. He’d gone out of his way to rescue Orihime, who, as a human beta whose primary role in battle was support, was written off as neither worth rescuing nor likely to escape. And, to do it, he’d found himself leading a group with an alpha, two betas, and another omega in it. They’d been offended about being shown up by a hostile human omega against Aizen and had been quick to show it.

And then came what was apparently his fatal misstep: eating lunch with Ishida on his own. Ichigo hadn’t even thought about what people would think about an alpha and an omega eating together alone in public, and they both were rather more absorbed by the idea that they were related than anything else.

Apparently no one else got the memo, because that’s when all the marriage and bonding proposals started flying in, mostly from Soul Society. Because Ichigo’d eaten lunch out with his cousin, he’s suddenly open to having his life ruled by an alpha. Right. Absolutely. There were a lot of people who were going to get a good punching if he got his hands on them. Even some of his classmates had gotten weird about him lately.

“The basement’s free!” Kisuke, gods bless him, suggested to him when he got back into hearing distance.

“Thanks!” Ichigo hollered back. Punching his hollow would do for now. At the very least, _he’d_ punch back.

* * *

The next two weeks were featured Ichigo getting what amounted to mounds of offer letters. They all went into the recycling, but they were also numerous enough to be annoying. The ones that came in public got tongues wagging even more than usual. A few even came by hell butterfly, and he’d needed Kisuke’s help to send them off without giving off the wrong impression.

He almost wished Kisuke were an alpha, they wouldn’t bother then, before reasserting to himself that he was a strong _person_ and so was Kisuke. These people were just assholes who wanted ties with the Shiba—or at least his dad thought—and to claim that their House or family had taken down Aizen. He could and would wait to see with someone who actually cared about him. In the meanwhile, he knew who he trusted at his neck.

Maybe that was why, when the big one came, it came to the Shoten. A sizeable package wrapped in heavy parchment and embossed with an ornate seal Ichigo didn’t recognize, but Kisuke did.

“The Kirinji,” he lectured, “are one of the Big Five Noble Houses, along with the Shihōin, Kuchiki, Sasakibe, and Shiba. The Kirinji have long considered themselves to be the most important, since they are the only one with a member who is part of the Zero Squad, which is a group of powerful Shinigami who protect the Soul King’s realm. They will need to be handled carefully.”

Ichigo’s eyebrows furrowed. “You mean they don’t take rejection well?”

“Of course not. No one this powerful takes rejection well. But even ignoring them might bring reprisal.”

“Well, I’m not going to encourage them. Even if I _was_ looking, I’m not going to roll over because someone with a jeweled collar instead of a leather cord tries their hand at me.”

“No,” Kisuke frowned, staring down at it. “That would not be like you. But be careful.”

“I’m always careful.”

Kisuke caught Ichigo’s eyes and stared into them. “I’m serious. These people, they aren’t like the rest of the people who have been sending letters and likely not expecting you to answer theirs. They’re not even like the Kuchiki. If they are serious about pursuing you, then nothing short of a bonding will dissuade them, and maybe not even then.”

Ichigo snorted. “This time a few years ago I was a ryōka, an invader. I’m always careful these days, but I’ll keep an extra eye out.”

Kisuke gave him a look over and rummaged through a pile for something. “Here. Speaking to you as an omega who has seen what they do, as well as as a former mentor, I expect you to let me know if they harass you outside of here.”

Ichigo blinked and took the item. It looked more like a panic button than a phone, and he slipped it into a pocket. “I promise. And I’m still learning from you, Mister Hat-and-Clogs.” He knocked shoulders gently until Kisuke quirked a smile back.

* * *

Ichigo kept his promises. This one, it only took him another two weeks to keep. Kisuke would be surprised that he’d actually used the panic button if it weren’t Ichigo promising. The Kirinji making their move was a lot less so.

He found Isshin’s reiatsu before Ichigo’s, which was mildly worrying. He converged on it anyway, only to see Isshin putting himself between Yuzu and a trio of dark-robed figures with zanpakutō. Probably private contractors or household guard, and it looked like they came loaded for Shiba. He takes down one bare-handed, and then a second as Isshin cuts the third. They exchange a speaking look as a garganta opens and Ichigo emerges with Karin. She has a few cuts, nothing serious, and her reiatsu is flaring. Neither of them are followed.

“We lost them on the other side,” Karin directed her statement at Isshin.

“Good,” Isshin replied. “Urahara, could you dump these in Soul Society?”

Kisuke glanced at Ichigo, who seemed fine, if a bit annoyed. “It would be my pleasure.”

* * *

Kisuke wasn’t sure if word spread, or if something else had happened, but the offer letters tapered off sharply after the skirmish with the Kirinjis. He was on edge. They may have underestimated the resources Ichigo had at hand, and he didn’t think he’d underestimated the danger that they represented. Especially now.

Ichigo pretended not to be affected, but Kisuke knew what it looked like when an omega felt threatened. He’d had to learn what it looked like to train himself out of it. He watched Ichigo, and saw someone who was trying their best not to see a trap around every corner. Ichigo might have been powerful, but he was a straightforward person and definitely used to dealing with the kind of opponent that came in the dark of night when you weren’t expecting it. He hated it. Something was going to have to give.

Ichigo had wanted to take it to the Kirinjis directly. It had been Kisuke who had convinced him to do otherwise. The day Ichigo went missing, he’d learn to wish he’d given in earlier.

Ichigo hadn’t set off the panic button, so there was no telling how long he’d been gone. He had left for home after work one day, and never got there. Isshin presumed he was at the Shoten, and the alarm wasn’t raised until twenty-four hours after he’d gone missing. Luckily, Kisuke did have a contingency that would allow him to find Ichigo’s reiatsu anywhere in the three worlds. He was expecting it to narrow in on Soul Society.

It led to Hueco Mundo.

He called Shinji, mostly because he could get them both over to Hueco Mundo quicker than Kisuke could jury-rig something, and because he did have to admit that it’d be useful to have a beta around in case whatever had gotten Ichigo had been relying on his omega status. Carefulness was engraved in his bones, next to loyalty and persistence.

Shinji was sitting in the Shoten within the half hour, and they were on their way to Hueco Mundo mere minutes later. Once they got there, it was more a matter of following the reiatsu than info gathering. Mixed hollow and Shinigami reiatsu tinged with heat was neither common nor difficult to follow. Neither was the howl that rattled their bones as they moved towards it.

There was a moment when the absolute last thing any piece of his body wanted to go was in that direction. He told that instinct where to bury itself.

Ichigo was halfway hollowified, looking more like an arrancar than anything. In front of him was the body of a hollow that had challenged him and lost. More interesting were the arrancar ringed around the sides. He recognized some of the surviving Espada and readied himself to attack if necessary.

Shinji was a few steps behind, and by the time he’d gotten to the right vicinity, Ichigo had noticed them both. Neither Kisuke nor the Espada moved as Ichigo got in his face. He was sniffed and then left alone as Ichigo stalked over to Shinji.

One of the Espada turned to him after Ichigo turned away. A man who was curled around a pillow and who he thought he remembered from the fake Karakura. “That’s better than anyone else has gotten out of him. You gonna help?”

“Of course.” Wind ruffled their clothes, and Kisuke shaded his eyes against windblown sand. “How did you find him?”

“He opened a garganta straight to us. Didn’t want to mate us, and fought off Grimmjow for that, but apparently he decided that Hueco Mundo was safe. Didn’t know he was like us until he shot a cero at Grimm’s face.”

Right then, Ichigo kicked Shinji away with enough force that without a judicious application of hierro right then there might have been a serious injury. Shinji didn’t bounce far, and landed near a girl that he’d seen with the Espada he’d been talking to. She pulled him further away, to what was presumably a safe distance. Looking around, he noted that most of the arrancar weren’t any closer.

“I’m Starrk,” the Espada introduced himself. “He’s been kicking away anyone who’s not an omega, we figured out pretty fast.” He cast a weather eye out towards the group. “I can order them to scatter if you want privacy. Most of the Shinigami we’ve met seem to prefer that.”

Preferring omegas was another reason to ignore the letters that had gotten them into this mess, Kisuke thought, though he hadn’t pinned Ichigo as that. And—what the hell was he doing? Ichigo wouldn’t want that kind of intervention. He’d probably prefer to be kept hydrated and fed and alone for however long it took, even if it was painful, especially when no one else was on the line. More, like this there wasn’t any meaningful asking for consent to anything else. Kisuke was a great many terrible things, but he took pride these days in not causing unnecessary pain.

And yet—“Please.” Whatever he was going to do, his shame should be his to bear alone.

Starrk nodded slowly. “He’ll keep drawing in hollows. With a call out like his left unanswered, it’s unavoidable. There’ll be a perimeter, and I’ll stay close enough. My reiatsu is too much for most of them.”

“Thank you.”

The words were stiff, but Kisuke’s attention was already fully back on Ichigo, who was stalking back towards him. They met each other’s eyes, and then Ichigo’s lizard tail slashed open his clothes,

Skin hunger was common during heat, so Kisuke wasn’t surprised when Ichigo reeled him it. An induced heat with instincts going all over the place meant that this was one of the few sources of stability Ichigo could rely on. He could do this. He relaxed by inches into surprisingly gentle claws. There was a noise that might have been the wind whistling if Ichigo’s chest didn’t rumble with it.

Ichigo pulled back so that their eyes met again, and Ichigo’s flashed into their hollow ones. “King wants ya to fuck ‘im,” Ichigo’s hollow said. “Or I wanna, and ‘e says yes. It’d go faster, and we don’ like this. And ‘e trusts ya to make it okay for him.”

“Come again?”

“I know ya can hear me, bastard.” Ichigo’s hollow sounds impatient and needy. “Izzat a yes or a no, ‘cause I’m gonna ask Starrk over there otherwise.”

Kisuke was sure he felt the moment when he started giving off sour-defensive-scared omega pheromones. He even probably did, with the control he’d learned to maintain over those systems. Starrk appeared in a flash. He probably hadn’t even been out of hearing range, at that.

Ichigo’s hollow looked between them and shrugged. “I don’t have long. If you’re weird to King after this, I’m gonna kill you.”

Kisuke probably said something, but he wasn’t sure what. His best former student, one of the few people he’d live for, was sitting in front of him, needing and asking for something he couldn’t give. But he hadn’t _asked,_ not himself, and Kisuke wasn’t going to do that to him, even if this wasn’t really any better. That might have been Ichigo’s hollow, but it wasn’t Ichigo, and they were in _heat_. He looked over at Starrk. If he couldn’t give it, he still wouldn’t make Ichigo suffer for his neuroses. His hands clenched on Ichigo’s hierro-hard arms as Starrk approached, but he didn’t say anything.

Ichigo’s tail went from wrapped around Kisuke to wrapped around Starrk, who pushed his robe out of the way before it got stuck to his body. Kisuke moved to accommodate Starrk also shifting Ichigo’s clothing. He could feel Ichigo twitching as Starrk breached him. Even with lube procured from somewhere, Ichigo couldn’t keep still. Kisuke buried his face in Ichigo’s neck and counted backwards by multiples of seventeen as he felt and smelled sex.

It was to help Ichigo as much as he could.

It also might have been self-punishment.

He also kept track of how many times Starrk came (two), how many times Ichigo had (four, which was about what you could expect with heat hormones. His clothes were probably sticky with it), how many hollows had come to challenge (one that got past the arrancar, who disintegrated in the presence of all their reiatsu), and how many things he was going to need to do when this finally ended.

Ichigo eventually came back to himself long enough to pull away from them both, muttering about being sore. Starrk looked fucked-out, like it had been _his_ heat, and Kisuke mostly just felt tired. He still managed a small smile for Ichigo when he looked his way.

“You came,” Ichigo’s voice was gravel with his hollowness that hadn’t retreated.

“Of course.”

“They pulled a dirty trick. I wasn’t expecting them to induce a heat.”

“They tried to bring you to Soul Society like this?”

“Got it in one. I figured here was safer. But the Shoten might be better?”

“I’ve certainly prepared in case I needed to avoid the Gotei while in heat. But are you sure?”

“Urahara. Kisuke.” Ichigo’s eyes pinned him in place. “Didn’t my hollow ask you? Can’t you—I want to be around you, even when I’m like this, if you’ll have me. It sucks, but I trust you. I let Starrk because it had to be someone and I knew you were right there in case anything happened. I already halfway-live with you. If it was going to be anyone—”

“Last week, when you weren’t like this, you saw me as your old teacher.”

“I don’t show up to Mrs. Ochi’s house with bonding proposals to recycle! Or just because I want to punch something, or to talk. I already go to you for everything else, because you matter to me, and not just as a former teacher. I already trust you with all the things I value more than myself. Why wouldn’t I trust you with this?”

Starrk, who had been politely not listening, poked his head back in. “It’s going to start back up soon, I can smell it. If you’re going to leave, now is the time.”

Kisuke looked between Starrk and Ichigo, and made a decision. “If you could tell my companion that I’m going back to the Transient World?”

Starrk yawned and nodded. “I’ll let him know. Damn, I need a nap.” He wandered off, taking his discarded pillow with him.

Ichigo tore a hole in reality, and Kisuke carried him through it. Ichigo’s nose was in his neck, his skin clammy to the touch in a way that might be enhanced by his still-reptilian features. By the time they had gotten halfway back, Ichigo was humping his leg and whining in embarrassment. Clearly heat-drunk. Kisuke had never taken someone like this, someone so out of it, but if Ichigo trusted him, he was not going to betray that trust. He didn’t know that he deserved it, but this wasn’t about him right then.

Ichigo was fucking himself with his tail by the time they emerged from the garganta into the Shoten’s basement. As if he needed confirmation to be sure that Ichigo wasn’t himself again. He tightened his arms around him as he stepped over the threshold. No one met them on the inside, though he felt the defenses raise fully the moment after they entered. _Thank you, Tessai._

He glanced at the hallway for a moment, thinking about the comfortable bed at the end. The basement would be better for containing reiatsu and it had his hot springs in case of any accidents, but with the defenses raised he might be able to justify the bed. Ichigo started mouthing at his neck, threatening teeth if he didn’t move, so he started down the hallway.

He’d never liked heats, but it was so much easier not to waste the energy _hating_ them when you were the one so out of it that you couldn’t remember it.

At least he was prepared. He dug out his own heat kit, slipping a condom on a toy he made sure Ichigo could see. He ended up wrestling with the tail anyway. There was barely a breath between when he got the tail out and when he got the dildo inside. Ichigo let out a breathy moan that echoed with hollow and wrapped himself around Kisuke like a venus fly trap around a tasty bug that had gotten just a little too close.

And then he came all over Kisuke’s clothes. That bit, Kisuke could have planned a little better. That was going to get uncomfortable quickly.

Kisuke kept up with the dildo and letting Ichigo plaster himself all over him. It took a few minutes, but Ichigo seemed to be getting a little more lucid. He pulled back far enough to meet Kisuke’s eyes, pupils blown and face twisted in unusual and interesting ways. Kisuke put his free hand around Ichigo’s cock and watched his face as he shuddered to completion nearly immediately.

By this point, coming was nearly dry and painful. With an induced heat, Ichigo’s body hadn’t had time to prepare the facilities for more production. There wasn’t any real way around that, not that he could think of. The best he could do was to take out the dildo and press his clean hand to Ichigo’s head, comforting him as he could.

“Kisuke,” Ichigo coughed.

“I know.” _How much had they dosed him with?_ “Eat this.” He passed Ichigo a protein bar.

“Thanks.” Ichigo took a bite. “I trust you.”

“I know,” Kisuke replied, and even a million mental miles away the pronouncement sent a curl of something through him. Induced heats were generally done with an alpha on hand because mating one ended a heat early, before one got to all of these troubles. To be fair, they were usually used as part of fertility treatments, not assault. They left too much of a trace for that. He was no alpha, and neither of them were popping out any babies, but maybe he could fool Ichigo’s compromised senses about the first with a knotting dildo and some hormones? It had never worked on him, but he’d never been this desperate…

“I’m sorry.” Ichigo managed. He was trembling again. Less lucid time, another bad sign…

“Don’t be. I’ll take care of it.” Kisuke promised.

He stripped off his dirtied clothes. While Ichigo slipped back into the throes of artificial heat, Kisuke hastily applied the scent-blocker he kept for dealing with the Gotei, and doused as much of himself as he could with the small bottle of alpha pheromones he had on hand. It smelled strange to him, but if it could work… Kisuke held out the hand he’d used to Ichigo, who smelled it and made himself small. He didn’t fight Kisuke when he rolled him over. He kept his hand and wrist in front of Ichigo while he spread Ichigo open enough with the other to push the himself in.

The knotting condom was something he’d bought a few months back, when he thought he might be sharing his heat with Shinji. He’d never felt it was worth the risk to share with an actual alpha, and there were few enough people he trusted enough of any dynamic. He’d hoped that it would help him avoid the pain that often came with a solo heat. He’d been lucky, and it had only been a false heat. It had left him with a two-day boner and a full heat kit, but not this loss of faculties that Ichigo was experiencing.

The condom was supposed to make him feel to Ichigo like an alpha’s cock, in addition to having an inflatable knot. Seeing it, Kisuke was sure he could make better, once he had more time.

With how Ichigo was moving on him, that would be some time in coming.

It had been a while since Kisuke had had sex, and he couldn’t afford to lose himself to it and possibly hurt Ichigo, but it was more tempting than he’d thought. But Ichigo trusted him to see him safely, so he was going to restrain himself. As much as one could surrounded by sweet tight heat that eagerly pushed back for more he didn’t have.

Kisuke held firm with one hand and traced patterns into the flexing muscles of Ichigo’s back with the other. It took longer for Ichigo to work up this time, and he hoped he got the timing of it right. Just as he thought Ichigo’s body was trying to squeeze another orgasm out of him, Kisuke pulled the tab and inflated around him.

Ichigo squeezed at the same time, his body exploding into orgasm, and Kisuke couldn’t breathe for a long moment as pleasure curled up his spine. Ichigo was tense and shaking when he was done, which was what finally put Kisuke over the edge. The inflatable knot grew again when he did, and Ichigo cried out as his body tried to dribble more semen that it definitely did not have on tap. Kisuke fell on top of him, combing through his hair. He didn’t notice Ichigo snuffling into his neck, which hadn’t been covered by pheromone, as they both fell asleep.

* * *

Shinji was around in the morning, Kisuke noticed. There were defenses up around the Shoten, but he was pretty sure another couple of Vizards were hanging around somewhere.

“No alpha mated ‘im, so they’re gonna keep tryin’. Omegas don’t count, ya know.” Shinji greeted him.

Kisuke stilled. “I know. But they won’t get away with it.”

Ichigo poked his head up. “Oi, Shinji, you offering?”

Kisuke tensed, but Shinji just laughed. “Ya got a teacher kink, Ichi? Need ta find ya a mini-skirt? Or do ya just like older guys?” Ichigo sputtered, and Shinji kept laughing. “’Sides, they wouldn’t count betas with omegas either, old-fashioned idiots.”

“Have the Kirinjis done anything public?” Kisuke asked.

The mood sobered. “Not yet, that we can tell. And we’d tell ya. But I don’t need to tell ya to be careful, and maybe get someone with more power on yer case. Shihōin, or Kuchiki, or both, since ya’ve got friends good enough to cross those fancy bastards.”

“…”

Ichigo pinched the bridge of his nose. “Well, I’m sick of this. And if we don’t bash in their faces, they’ll pull this bullshit again. I’m not going to let that happen. I’ll fight every last one of them if I have to.”

“We can do it better with politics,” Kisuke intervened. “But you’re not wrong. They’ve made it clear that they won’t respect anything else.”

Shinji snorted. “Ya were expecting them to?”

Ichigo glared at the table in silence.

* * *

Shinji raised the best plan they could come up with, so they carry it out. Kisuke and Ichigo talked to Kuukaku and Yoruichi together. It’s made easier because Yoruichi was entertaining Kuukaku when they went looking for her. As much as Ichigo projected discomfort, Kisuke couldn’t bring himself to regret interrupting them together, especially when Kuukaku hits Yoruichi over the head after she makes a comment about omega-omega relationships that makes Ichigo scowl. It’s not like a gay alpha-beta pair like them had it that much easier when they had exactly the same potential for reproduction and small noble families to boot.

After, Ichigo went to convince the Kuchiki while Kisuke went to do a little recon. It’s code for him dusting off his Onmitsukidō uniform and playing merry hell on what he can manage of the Kirinjis.

By the time Ichigo left the Kuchikis, the head of the Kirinji household guard was found apparently suicided on his own sword. Later that evening, long after Ichigo and Kisuke had returned to the human world, a member of a prominent branch family was found dead, with marks that matched the new head guard’s sword.

Or so the death certificate said. They had been the one to order the last attack on Ichigo, after all, although no foul play could be proven.

The rest, they end up leaving to the noble clans to work out. It feels anticlimactic to Ichigo, but he’d rather this than another episode of induced heat or worse. He’s caught even more off-guard by how difficult it was for him to locate Kisuke after everything is said and done. He tried the Shoten, the Vizard’s homes, and everywhere else he could think short of returning to the Seireitei.

Ichigo was frustrated, but he was not the kind of person who gave up. There were several conversations they needed to have, and by the gods they were going to have them He eventually remembered that spiritual ribbons exist, and spends a good while searching for Kisuke’s.

It took two days, but eventually he caught sight of it. It led to the Shoten. Ichigo wondered if Kisuke was signaling that he was ready to talk, or if he’d just been lucky. He got to the Shoten before that thought properly took root.

He nodded to Ururu as he passes by her in the shop and went to the living area. Kisuke looked up when he finds him. He looked tired, and maybe a bit surprised.

“Ichigo?”

Ichigo nodded, swallowing.

“Is something happening?”

“No.”

They studied each other from across the room. And then Ichigo sighed, and approached Kisuke. Kisuke froze as a pair of chapped lips covered his own. Ichigo pulled away, and he barely kept in the embarrassing dying whale noises.

“The Kirinji are backing down,” Kisuke tried.

“That’s good.”

The awkwardness could eat the whole room and keep on going. Finally, Ichigo bowed. “I’m sorry about everything that happened during the induced heat. Thank you for helping me. If you want me to disappear, I promise you won’t see me again anytime soon.”

“No, that’s—“ Kisuke sighed and pulled off his hat. “That’s not your fault, Ichigo. A number of things happened during that time that you could not have consented to, and I did not prevent them from happening. I would understand if you did not want to spend time here anymore, though of course if you needed anything I would be happy to provide whatever I am able to.”

Ichigo looked between Kisuke and the hat, and back. Kisuke focused on controlling his tells. Neither of them moved.

“I already wanted you,” Ichigo confessed. Kisuke’s eyes widened and sped towards Ichigo’s face, although Ichigo was staring at the ground. “Why wouldn’t I? You’re smart and strong and I trust you. Even if I was just your student, and it was like I walked into a strange manga. I don’t know if that makes it better or worse.”

Kisuke puts his hat on Ichigo’s head and his free hand against his cheek.

Ichigo rambled on. “I don’t want to stop coming by here, or stopping hollows with you. And I do want you for real, on a date and maybe even my next heat, if you’ll have me. I just don’t want to intrude where I’d be unwanted.”

And that was about the point that Kisuke cut Ichigo off with his mouth.

* * *

Ichigo hadn’t known just how much a good fight felt like foreplay until he was mixing the two. Kisuke was mostly out of it, but even so his sword work was difficult to keep up with. This desperation meant that he was running outside his usual patterns. _“Shibari!”_ Kisuke shouted, and this time when Ichigo felt the net form around him, he decided to stay put.

The last year hadn’t been smooth. Even with the Kirinjis tamped down enough not to send people after him, they’d still pulled dirty tricks on the Shiba as often as they could. More, the offers started piling up again, albeit a little more sluggishly than before, after it was made clear that the Kirinjis were out of the ‘race’.

Not that there was a race when he had Kisuke. There had been dates: long chats over picnics of gifted food, spars that turned into teasing, and outings to all sorts of places. Things only got better between them once they started spending more time outside of their usual Shinigami roles. Those talks led to this moment, the one they had been waiting for. Kisuke’s heat.

Biology sucked, there was no doubt, but it could be prepared for. Kisuke’s heat kit had been expanded for more food and water, and knotting condoms to go with the knotting dildo. Ichigo had thought he’d be the one wearing one of the condoms first, though he figured that would still come later. Neither of them were particularly traditionally-minded, but biology would always be biology.

Kisuke was as he’d never seen him, and he was beautiful. Even like this, he was no less gentle than he needed to be to move Ichigo how he wanted. It was a simple matter to make sure he was appropriately slick—and there they went. They both groaned as Ichigo wiggled into a more comfortable spot.

Knotting like this was nearly too much. Ichigo was stretchy enough that it wasn’t dangerous, but outside of heat instincts it just felt too big. Too much. He squeezed involuntarily over it and Kisuke whined. Ichigo did it again, on purpose this time, and it put Kisuke over the edge. With heat, reinflation was nearly immediate. Ichigo ended up having to get him off a second time before the first knot in him even went down.

Of course, the favor was returned twofold with great enthusiasm. Once they were done, they were going to have to clean off the _ceiling._ Ichigo blamed the time Kisuke spent inventing better sex toys.

The two of them might not be perceived as a couple of anything except friends by certain factions, but they found themselves happy with the arrangements. They spent a great deal of time in each other’s pockets, and while it wasn’t always smooth sailing, they did their best. Eventually everyone would realize that the waters were as empty as they ever were, and leave Ichigo alone. But, for now, they had each other, and they had this.

And, occasionally, they had pleasurable heats. Kisuke sucked and bit bruises into Ichigo’s neck as he fucked into him again. Very pleasurable heats.

Maybe someday they’d do a bonding in front of the Seireitei. They hadn’t decided with all the politics involved, but it was possible. Even without it, Ichigo found plenty of time to show Kisuke off to the people who’d given them the last push to get to where they were. He turned to give Kisuke a marching set of love bites. This wasn’t a one-way relationship, not at all. 


End file.
